Fo says Brunetta would need high chair to be sworn in

Nobel laureate sparks protests from Berlusconi's party

(ANSA) - Rome, April 26 - Italian Nobel Literature Laureate
Dario Fo sparked huge protests from ex-premier Silvio
Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PdL) party on Friday when he
said one of its senior figures would need a "high chair" to be
sworn in as minister.

The comment was directed at PdL House whip Renato Brunetta,
a former civil service minister who has been named as a possible
member of a cabinet in the left-right government Enrico Letta of
the Democratic Party (PD) is expected to form.

Brunetta is very short.

"The first thing I would do if Brunetta were to be sworn in
would be to get a high chair so he could be at the right level,
be up to the situation," Fo, an actor-playwriter who won the
1997 Nobel Prize for Literature, said on Italian radio.
Fo, 87, is a high-profile supporter of the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) that captured around a
quarter of the vote in February's inconclusive general election.

He recently made a shortlist of M5S candidates to be head
of State.
PdL Secretary Angelino Alfano led the counter-attack.

"Dario Fo's words are striking for the gratuitous vulgarity
of a person who clearly has little sense of politics and offends
people with impunity," Alfano said.
"We are ashamed on his behalf".